A Way To Make You Smile
by Grevola
Summary: Duo needs some help getting over all that's happened and Heero needs to cheer up, can they help each other? pg13 for yaoi


A Way To Make You Smile  
  
Duo sighed. He had been stumbling over the words to the song for some time now. He had the music in his head and carefully transcribed to paper, but he couldn't get the words to work.  
  
He had become a mechanic after the war was over, he specialized in space craft and the mobile suits that were used for construction in the Colonies. But in his spare time he had taken to composing and recording songs. It was his method of postwar therapy, giving him a focus for all of the emotional backlash that had come with peace.  
  
L2 had been given a serious amount of thought after the war and was no longer the arid, poverty stricken place it had once been. He himself had tried to give the economy a boost by setting up there and providing many jobs for the inhabitants. Now his company and the Winner Corporation provided the backbone for the colony's prosperity.  
  
Living again on L2 he was generally quite happy, he had friends both from the war and from after it. He had just helped Hilde open another branch of the operation on L1 and he was happy to know that she was settled in there and seeing some one.  
  
At first she had been hurt when she heard that he saw her as a younger sister, and nothing more, but she had gotten over that and as a result they had become good friends.  
  
'What I really need,' he thought, 'is some one to bounce ideas off of. Some one who will listen and not criticize until I've finished. Some one objective...' That thought immediately led to thoughts of Heero.  
  
As he had suspected the end of the war had been very hard on the pilot of Wing Zero. He had spent his whole life training for, and then fighting, the battle for peace. Once all that was over he had drifted for a while. Eventually he had reappeared and taken up a position as Relena's body guard. At first Duo had been jealous, but then he had learned that Relena was courting some dignitary. They were now married quite happily and any infatuation the young Peacecraft daughter had felt for Heero had passed.  
  
Now Heero was quite and anti-social by all accounts. He didn't even have the occasional malicious smirk that he some times displayed during the war. Duo had kept in contact with him on and off over the four years since the end of the war, but it was difficult when Heero was not likely to respond  
  
/I've found a way to make you  
  
I've found a way  
  
a way to make you smile/  
  
'Why not try Heero? If nothing else he might get a laugh out of it at my expense. Besides, he's actually pretty good with words, when he uses them.' That decided Duo picked up his vidphone and made a long distance call.  
  
As he had expected he got the answering machine, it was late evening for him, but where Heero was on Earth he was probably at work. At the tone he began his message, "Hey Heero, it's me. I have a favor to ask you. I'm trying to work out the lyrics to a song and, well they just aren't coming for me. I'll read you what I've got, and I'd appreciate it if you'd give me your feed back."  
  
/I read bad poetry  
  
into your machine/  
  
Duo took a deep breath and read the halting verses into the receiver. Glancing back up at the camera he gave a cheeky grin. "Thanks either way man. Talk to ya latter." With that he hung up the phone and went to catch the afternoon movie on the television. He was decidedly not thinking about what he had just done.  
  
The next day Duo got back from his day at the shop and went to check his messages. After sorting through a few business related calls and couple of social invitations he came across the message he had been hopping for.  
  
Heero's face came on the screen as he hit play. "Hi Duo, it's Heero. It's good to hear from you. I think that in the penultimate verse where you say 'thank you for listening, goodbye./ I hope for you that you take this happiness' it would be better if you broke it up like this, 'thank you for listening, goodbye./ I hope for you that you apply/ this happiness/ this peacefulness/'  
  
"The rest of it sounds pretty good, but you said that they were lyrics. If you would send me the music that goes with them, maybe I could help more. Call any time you need help." With that Heero signed off.  
  
Duo was shocked for a moment. Not only had Heero been willing to help him, he'd smiled! He replayed the message. 'There! Right when he says 'apply'! He actually smiled!' The small upturing of Heero's lips some how made Duo happier than the help he had received. 'He is so very beautiful when he smiles.' Quickly he saved the message to a permanent file, some how wanting to immortalize the moment.  
  
/I save your messages  
  
just to hear your voice  
  
you always listen carefully  
  
to awkward rhymes.  
  
you always say your name,  
  
like I wouldn't know it's you,  
  
at your most beautiful./  
  
Duo made the correction to his lyrics and sent Heero a draft of the song, complete with musical accompaniment. Idly he wondered why Heero had been so willing to help him. 'Maybe he's really board.' Duo thought, 'or on a very strong drug.'  
  
The next day yielded another message from Heero, more help and another smile. Duo was ecstatic. 'Two honest to goodness smiles!' He congratulated himself. 'Even if my poetry does stink, at least it's good for something!' "Heero Yuy, I have found a way to make you smile." The last was said out loud, as much a vow as a statement.  
  
The inspiration provided by Heero's help and smiles had Duo writing more lyrics and more songs then ever. Fewer and fewer were about postwar angst and more and more seemed to be about happiness.  
  
/I found a way to make you  
  
I found a way  
  
a way to make you smile/  
  
Six months had passed since Duo had given Heero that first call and he now had written fourteen songs that he felt were worth putting together onto a CD. He had gotten in touch with a friend of his who worked at a recording studio and had recorded them professionally onto a disk.  
  
He was making a guest list for a celebration party and hadn't gotten past the first name. Heero Yuy. For the usually very social young man this was surprising but he slowly realized that the only person he wanted to share his achievement with was Heero. 'He is the one who helped get me this far. I'd still be stuck on "The Apologist" if it weren't for him.'  
  
His mind made up Duo decided to have a much more sedate celebration then the blow out he had originally planed. He called Heero up, to his surprise Heero answered the phone in person.  
  
"Hello?" The stoic man greeted his friend.  
  
"Hi Heero. Good to see you face to face, it's been a while. Any way, I wanted to know if you would like to come up and have a vacation on L2." Duo said, trying not to fidget while he asked the question. His feelings for Heero had existed during the war, but some how they had intensified over the past six months.  
  
Heero was silent for a long moment. "I'm very sorry but I can't." He said at last.  
  
Duo tried not to look too crestfallen. "It's all ri-"  
  
He was interrupted, "I'm afraid that I can't afford a trip to L2, and I promised not to appropriate money from Relena's accounts." He smirked slightly. Duo perked up instantly. "But if you could make it down dirtside I would be more than happy to see you."  
  
It was all the braided man could do not to bounce through the ceiling. "Of course, I would love to." Then courtesy caught up with him and he continued in a more sedate tone, "That is if it's not too much trouble..."  
  
Heero's lips quriked slightly. "None at all, you braided idiot, none at all."  
  
The arrangements were made and Duo would take a shuttle down the next day. That evening he bounced around his house packing and calling up his friends to find out who could house sit for the two weeks he was planing to be gone.  
  
The flight went smoothly, without a single hitch or delay, but for Duo it felt like the longest flight of his life. He knew his constant fidgeting and bouncing was making the other passengers nervous, but he couldn't help it. After the interminable wait he disembarked and hurried through the security procedures as quickly as he could.  
  
There on the other side, waiting patiently for him, was Heero. Long gone were the days of spandex and green tank tops for this young man. He stood there in a pair of blue jeans and a white, short sleeve T-shirt. On his shoulders he wore a black leather jacket, but the impression he gave was not of a biker or of a punk. He looked strangely classy dressed like that.  
  
He was taller than he had been, but still not overly tall, coming in around 5'8". Duo was an even 5'6" which he blamed entirely on the lack of good food as a child. Heero's hair was still an unruly brown mess and his eyes hadn't lost their sharpness in the years of peace.  
  
"Hey man, good to see ya!" Duo said extending a hand without second thought toward the Japanese man.  
  
After a moment's pause, Heero took the offered hand in his own and gave it warm handshake. "It's nice to see you too." He replied, four years of acting as a politician's body guard had taught him to make small talk when necessary, but around Duo it seemed natural.  
  
They moved over to the baggage carousel and retrieved Duo's one black duffle. Heero raised one eyebrow when Duo told him it was his only bag. "Hey, you think I'd forget the importance of packing light that easily? Give me a break!" But his good natured smile stayed in place.  
  
"Well lets get to my apartment, you must be tired from your trip and the jet lag." Heero said as he shouldered the duffle's strap and led the way toward his car.  
  
His car was reasonably nice, but a few years old and Duo guessed that he'd gotten it used some where. They headed away from the spaceport and into town. After a forty minute drive, during which Duo did everything in his power not to fall asleep, they pulled into a garage next to a large, imposing, concrete apartment building.  
  
As Duo examined the inside of the elevator taking them upstairs he realized that Relena probably wasn't paying Heero even a quarter of what he should be getting as a war hero and her body guard. 'He ought to have a nice house, a new car and be able to afford a ticket to L2 if he was so inclined to go. This is outrageous.'  
  
But his thoughts were cut short as the elevator stopped, depositing them on the fourth floor. Heero led him about half way down the hall and then moved to unlock his door. "It's not much." He said suddenly. "But it's enough."  
  
"Ever the practical one, I see." Duo said as he glanced around the apartment. The living room was separated from the kitchen by a counter. There were two doors along the right hand wall, one open slightly revealing a bath room and he guessed that the other housed a bed room. It was into this room that Heero led him.  
  
"You're the guest, so you can have the bed." Heero said as he set the duffle down by the foot of the queen size.  
  
"No, really, I'm fine with the couch." Duo was starting to wish that he had offered to fly Heero up to L2 instead of coming down to Earth himself, he felt like he was stretching his friend's budget.  
  
"No, I insist." Heero said firmly, a familiar look of stubbornness crossing his features as he said this.  
  
Duo was too tired to argue further. "Alright, but we'll talk in the morning." He said as he yawned.  
  
"Good night, idiot." Heero said, a smile playing at the corner of his lips.  
  
/at my most beautiful  
  
I count your eyelashes, secretly.  
  
with every one, whisper I love you.  
  
I let you sleep./  
  
  
  
Duo's jet lag woke him up in the early hours of the next morning. He decided to take a couple of sleeping tablets so that he would get back to sleep and onto the Earth schedule faster. Quietly, so as not to disturb his host he opened the bedroom door and slipped into the living room.  
  
Heero lay peacefully on the sofa, his long eyelashes spread gently against his cheek. The light from the street lamps outside the window fell across his prone figure and gave his skin a pale glow. Duo stepped up behind the sofa, now also in the rectangle of light from the window and looked down at his friend.  
  
'God you are beautiful.' He thought to himself as his hand, on a whim of its own, reached out brushed the unruly bangs out of the closed eyes. 'Most gorgeous eyelashes I've ever seen.' He thought enviously. Mentally berating himself for being sentimental he began to count them. After a moment he realized that he was whispering, "I love you." with every one.  
  
He glanced up at the opposite wall suddenly, noticing the mirror hanging there. Some how the sight of him kneeling next to Heero's sleeping form was the most wondrous thing he had ever seen. 'I never thought that I would get a chance to do this.' He thought.  
  
Then something in the reflection caught his eye and he glanced at the genuine article laying on the sofa. Yes, the corner of Heero's mouth was curved upward in the most minute of smiles. Duo returned the expression with his own, larger, smile.  
  
Deciding that he had done enough fawning for one evening, he stood quietly and walked over to the kitchenette. There he poured himself a glace of water, and downed the pills by the sink. Again he glanced over at Heero and smiled, as though Heero could see his expression through closed eyelids.  
  
"I love you." He whispered one more time, not caring if he was heard, before quietly making his way back to his borrowed room. He swore that Heero's smile grew as he passed by the couch.  
  
/I know your closed eye watching me,  
  
listening.  
  
I thought I saw a smile./  
  
The next day he was still up before Heero, so he sat in his room thinking. He realized now that the completion of his CD was really just an excuse to see Heero face to face again. 'I really owe that guy a lot. He's special and he's helped me get over the bad things that happened. Now I want to do the same for him. I want to see him smile more.' He was startled out of his thoughts by a knock on the door.  
  
"Come in." He called from his seat on the bed.  
  
"Duo." Heero said gently. "I..." He began but stopped and sat down on the bed next to his friend. "I wanted to thank you. You sent me that first song to look over and, and it was the first time I'd done something that wasn't related to work or a mission in a long time. You gave me something to look forward to each day, and that means a lot to me. I... I wanted you to know." He finished suddenly.  
  
Duo smiled brightly. 'Well, looks like now's a pretty good time to face up.' He said and turned to Heero. "Heero, I didn't really realize it until just recently, but..." he took a deep breath. "I love you." His normal baritone seemed to disappear in the whispered confession.  
  
Heero's face lit up, a genuine smile gracing his lips for the first time since Duo had met him. "Duo, I love you." The Japanese man said quietly, before he turned Duo's head toward his own and kissed him.  
  
As their lips met a melody began playing in Duo's head, one that he would be sure to write as soon as he got the chance.  
  
/I've found a way to make you  
  
I've found a way  
  
a way to make you smile/  
  
  
  
Author's notes:  
  
Wow, it's done. It only took me three hours to... Wow again. The song used here is 'At My Most Beautiful' by R.E.M. The lyrics that Heero corrects are from 'The Apologist', also by R.E.M.  
  
Yes the song from the fic is the one that Duo is inspired to write at the end. It's one of my favorites. What do you think? Good, bad, sappy, OOC? Tell me: mywebjunk@webinbox.com, or you could be a rebell and REVIEW 


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